How preposterous is David Stern's decision to allow his referees to gamble?
When I sent the story to my buddy Sully he thought it was from The Onion.

I'm not kidding. And neither is David Stern. He has thought it over and — at the height of fan distrust of NBA officials — decided a little Pai Gow poker never hurt anybody.

After an internal investigation revealed that all 56 NBA officials had violated their contractual prohibition against gambling and over half had placed wagers in casinos, Stern concluded that while you might be able to fight city hall, you can't fight Mandalay Bay.

Not only did the commissioner lift his ban on gambling in general, he now doesn't see anything wrong with letting his refs gamble a little in a casino in the off-season, so long as they steer clear of the sports book.

Allowing your refs to gamble just a little is like letting your limo driver get just a little drunk or allowing your daughter to get just a little pregnant. It's a horrible freakin' idea.

You've heard of gateway drugs? The casino is literally a gateway to the sports book. You walk through it to get to the sports book.

We need to call in the Securities and Exchange Commission and find out if David Stern is shorting the NBA. This reversal is that perplexing.

Faced with the conundrum of having to either sanction his refs or grant them amnesty and relax his rules, Stern — who has been an absolute martinet on dress code, criticizing officials and leaving the bench — picked an issue of potential nuclear annihilation for his league on which to become Mister Softie.

I mean, it's not like Stern just had a massive gambling scandal involving a referee, right?

Oh, wait. That's right, he did. And he does know what happens when fans begin to doubt the legitimacy of a sport, right? Maybe his career will be a parabola, leading the NBA out of the wilderness to the mountaintop and then back down into the valley with a boxing-sized market share.

That Stern would do an about-face on gambling involving referees in the wake of the Tim Donaghy scandal is more shocking than if Alcoholics Anonymous announced it was now cool with beer and wine. (Just no hard stuff.)

In reconsidering the league's rules, Stern said, "Our ban on gambling is absolute, and in my view it is too absolute, too harsh and was not particularly well-enforced over the years."

Too harsh?

This from the guy who is so letter of the law that he torpedoed his league's own playoff season last spring by enforcing the ticky-tackiest leaving-the-bench suspensions in the history of the knee-jerk rule. When Stern suspended Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for running to the defense of Steve Nash after Robert Horry's calculated hip check, the commissioner drained all the drama out of the NBA playoffs by essentially awarding the Spurs the title during the Western Conference semifinals.

Even though no punches were thrown and no scuffle ensued, Stern insisted he could not make even the slightest reinterpretation of his own rule or entertain any mitigating factors that might allow the Suns — who it should be noted in perpetuity were victimized by awful officiating in Game 3, a game called by a guy who admitted to betting on games he worked — a fair chance to win the series.

In Stern's logic, leaving the bench to support a teammate who'd been the victim of a classless cheap shot, merited the death penalty for the team.

But listen to him on allowing his refs to enjoy some R&R at the MGM.

"I determined going into a casino isn't a capital offense," he said in Thursday's press conference. (No, wearing jeans on an NBA bench, that's a capital offense.)

How about taking a hot tub with Richie "The Fixer" Perry after a night at the tables? Is that cool now too?

Stern is right in that some recreational, clear-eyed, non-sports betting in the off-season is not in itself a danger to the league. But does Stern really believe that this is the nature of that particular vice? Particularly when Stern himself is the original Slippery Slope Guy.

Why did he implement zero tolerance of players complaining about calls? Why did he ban Timberlands on the bench? Why wouldn't he cut any slack to the Suns in the playoffs?

Because in Stern's pre-10/25 logic, those were slippery slopes and if he didn't draw some lines, the Malice in the Palace was going to be a twice-weekly occurrence. But 10/25 changed everything. Because on Thursday he gave his refs a pass on a slope so slippery it might as well be coated with Astroglide.

Gambling, Stern may or may not know, is insidious. Art Schlichter, Pete Rose and Hedake Smith got on that slippery slope and rode it all the way to rock bottom.

If one or more NBA referees have some genetic predisposition to compulsive disorders, does the league really want to authorize them to explore the dark side?

The reason refs shouldn't be allowed to gamble is not to prevent a guy from walking into a sports book, laying down a large wager on a game he's officiating and then fixing it. That's not how it happens.

The reason refs — and online poker addicts — shouldn't gamble is because next to a massive coke habit it is the fastest way to financial ruin. And that's when things get dicey. A broke ref is a susceptible ref. And a susceptible ref — as we thought Stern just learned — is a time bomb for his league.

If you see an NBA ref at the World Series of Poker in the summer, how differently might you regard a dubious call he makes the following spring?

Before Thursday the NBA's rules about officials gambling were absolute. And for once, they should have been.

If asking someone not to gamble is a huge sacrifice for them, then they have a gambling problem and shouldn't be officiating a major professional sports league in the first place.

The only upside from Stern's press conference is that this decision is so idiotic it will distract people from his equally inexcusable abdication of leadership on Isiah Thomas and Jim Dolan.

Bronco LB 59

10-26-2007, 04:31 PM

Your lousy thread belongs in the NBA forum.

epicSocialism4tw

10-26-2007, 04:36 PM

Your lousy thread belongs in the NBA forum.

Thanks for the input, sparky.

Broncoman13

10-26-2007, 05:40 PM

Who cares, it's the NBA...and the Mavs still suck!

:P

azbroncfan

10-26-2007, 06:07 PM

I agree, even more now since the nation is full of spineless tuck the tail between the leg cocky mav fans.

Rock Chalk

10-26-2007, 07:22 PM

wtf, all the refs were busted? hahaha i didnt know that.

TexanBob

10-26-2007, 07:38 PM

There was a time that the sports media hailed Stern as the media-savvy one but this decree sends all the wrong signals.

He might as well have a free condom program for the refs because refs are just going to visit prostitutes during road trips. We know they're going to so it's better to just pass out freebies for it.

I'd be telling the refs they are already well-compensated for what they do and part of that is to ensure that they aren't tempted to visit places to gamble, knowing the obvious public inference if an NBA ref is spotted at a known gambling business.

Another thing I disagree with is the idea that people will distinguish the difference between refs playing poker in the off-season versus any other time of the year. The refs (of any sport) should not be in a casino for the very purpose that it exposes them to gamblers and what do all gamblers want? Inside info to help to give them an edge on wagering. The ref doesn't actually have to be placing bets to be a dirty ref. Maybe all he needs to do is tell gambling elements which players are hiding an injury or which ones have a particular issue with a certain ref or a certain opponent that is bound to throw them off their game, etc and perhaps get comped at the casino or get a supplement to their paycheck in return. That's all it takes.

Stern and Goodell have both been making Bud Selig look like a paragon of sound judgement lately and that's frightening.

OBF1

10-26-2007, 07:40 PM

Oh, silly me, the NBA has been a joke for years now. Meanwhile back in the NFL

Los Broncos

10-26-2007, 07:58 PM

Its hard to admit that im a fan of the NBA, they put out such crappy product its harder to stay on board.

bombay

10-26-2007, 07:59 PM

Imagine allowing NBA officials to live like ordinary Americans.

Anyway, since (at least) the Kings-Lakers debacle in game 6 of the '01 Western conference finals, there's been no doubt that the NBA is as scripted as the WWF.

MechanicalBull

10-26-2007, 08:03 PM

hmmm... People still care about the NBA? The NBA wasn't a joke before this happened? :kiddingme

RhymesayersDU

10-26-2007, 08:09 PM

The best part will be when the Mavs are gearing up for a playoff run, here will be little llama, the NBA's #1 fan and most knowledgeable too.

The jokes just write themselves.

Bronco_Beerslug

10-26-2007, 08:22 PM

The NBA is a JokeSo are you, what's your point?

-Slap-

10-26-2007, 08:23 PM

Only an idiot would get worked up about this. Mavs fans should be grateful for one more lame excuse for their teams next choke job.

epicSocialism4tw

10-26-2007, 09:37 PM

Only an idiot would get worked up about this. Mavs fans should be grateful for one more lame excuse for their teams next choke job.

I'm sure you dont mind. You'll be in there sniffing around the casinos looking for the degenerates.

Only an idiot would think that there isnt any substance to this, and need to change the subject.

epicSocialism4tw

10-26-2007, 09:38 PM

There was a time that the sports media hailed Stern as the media-savvy one but this decree sends all the wrong signals.

He might as well have a free condom program for the refs because refs are just going to visit prostitutes during road trips. We know they're going to so it's better to just pass out freebies for it.

I'd be telling the refs they are already well-compensated for what they do and part of that is to ensure that they aren't tempted to visit places to gamble, knowing the obvious public inference if an NBA ref is spotted at a known gambling business.

Another thing I disagree with is the idea that people will distinguish the difference between refs playing poker in the off-season versus any other time of the year. The refs (of any sport) should not be in a casino for the very purpose that it exposes them to gamblers and what do all gamblers want? Inside info to help to give them an edge on wagering. The ref doesn't actually have to be placing bets to be a dirty ref. Maybe all he needs to do is tell gambling elements which players are hiding an injury or which ones have a particular issue with a certain ref or a certain opponent that is bound to throw them off their game, etc and perhaps get comped at the casino or get a supplement to their paycheck in return. That's all it takes.

Stern and Goodell have both been making Bud Selig look like a paragon of sound judgement lately and that's frightening.

Stern is really trying to make sure that reasonable fans dont turn on the TV when the NBA is on.

MechanicalBull

10-26-2007, 09:44 PM

This guy along with others has helped David Stern turn the NBA and the Knicks into a joke.